No Change to City G.O.P. Ballot

Fred Thompson, Alan Keyes and Duncan Hunter’s names will not be removed from the Republican primary ballot in New York City, despite an effort by some Board of Elections commissioners in Albany on Friday, and despite the fact that the county boards may take them off.

As I reported then, the state Republican Board of Elections commissioners voted to remove those three candidates, but Democratic commissioners did not vote. When the city Board of Elections voted, they were split evenly along party lines. At the time, there was some question as to what would happen to the city ballots, or if the vote was even valid.

“Ballots are going out as is,” said city Board of Elections spokeswoman Valerie Vasquez. “According to Commissioner Kellner [co-chair of the state Board of Elections], they never met, so that in and of itself would make the action invalid."

A spokesman for the state Board of Elections, Lee Daghlian, said, “I guess we can’t throw them [the city B.O.E.] in jail. They’re supposed to respond they way we ask on these issues.” He went on to say, “There’s maybe a stalemate with the city board, but as far as I know other boards are complying.”

I asked Daghlian which of the numerous county election boards would remove Keyes, Hunter and Thompson and he told me, “From what I know, all the other boards are complying with the order.”